Achipur & India’s First Chinese Settler
Widely considered to be the first Chinese to settle in India, there is an entire town named after ‘Tong Atchew’ in West Bengal.
By Live History India
Live History India
It is generally believed that the Bengali word for refined sugar, chini , as in Hindi, came because of the Chinese who brought in table sugar, as we know it today. The story finds mention in the writings of noted novelist and poet, Sunil Gangopadhyay. While we won’t get into the merits of that, what we can say for sure is how the sugar and the Chinese are so inextricably connected in Bengal. To find the link you have to go to Achipur around 30 km to the south of Kolkata, where you will find the tomb of the earliest recorded Chinese who settled in India.
While Chinese travelers and chroniclers, like Hieun Tsang and Fa Hien, have made their way into India, through millennia, the first Chinese settler in Bengal was a man the British called Tong Atchew, in the late 18th century. Also referred to varyingly as Yang Dazhao, Yang Daijang and Yang Tai Chow, little is known about the early life of Atchew, except for the fact that he was probably a tea trader.
Records show that around 1778, Atchew applied to the colonial government for land in Bengal, because he wanted to set up a sugar mill. Warren Hastings, the then Governor General, was deeply interested in trade with China and granted Atchew 650 bighas of land at an annual rent of 45 rupees. Since local Bengalis referred to Atchew as ‘Achi’, the place where he built his mill, came to be known as Achipur. To work in his sugar mill, Atchew brought indentured laborers from China.
Atchew died in 1783, and we find a letter from an East India Company attorney, attempting to extract money from the executor of Atchew’s estate. Details of what the estate must have been like come from the notice of sale in the Calcutta Gazette of 15th November 1804. The notice mentions that the estate, along with ‘all the buildings, stills, sugar mills and other fixtures’ were for sale. With an estate so large, Atchew was probably cultivating the sugarcane he needed to produce sugar. The mention of stills also indicates that he was brewing alcohol from the sugarcane.
With Atchew’s death, the settlement in Achipur came to an end and the Chinese community moved to Kolkata, which was where they would continue to live and expand, with fresh immigrants coming in as late as the 1950’s.
Today, Achipur is just like any other nondescript village in Bengal. Of Atchew’s sugar mill, absolutely nothing survives. However, Atchew’s horse-shoe shaped tomb, painted bright red, still remains, on the banks of the Hooghly river. Also surviving is a Chinese temple, dedicated to the deities Khuda-Khudi, the God and Goddess of Earth. The temple itself is a low-roofed structure, painted bright red and covered in excellent Chinese calligraphy. The present structure of the temple is likely to be more modern, but the idols inside were likely brought over from China by Atchew himself. Curiously, behind the main Chinese temple is a smaller Hindu shrine, which some texts mention as being dedicated to Dakshin Ray, the Tiger God worshipped by Hindus in and around the Sunderbans.
Many Chinese who have migrated out of Kolkata, visit the city from as far away as Canada and the United States for this annual pilgrimage. At Atchew’s tomb, symbolic paper money is burned and incense sticks are offered. At the temple incense sticks burn continuously, filling the sanctum sanctorum with white smoke. In front of the sanctum, offerings of food and wine are made. These often include roasted suckling pigs as well as whole fish and chicken along with Chinese wine.
All year Achipur remains a quiet, sleepy village, transforming into a fairground in the weeks following the Chinese New Year. This is when thousands of Chinese descend on the village, to pay their respects to Tai Pak Kung, as Atchew is known to the Chinese community, which roughly translates to the ‘biggest grandfather’ or ‘godfather’.
Deepanjan Ghosh for Live History India
